UPDATE 1-RESEARCH ALERT-Several brokerages cut Citrix target

(Adds details, share movement)

April 24 (Reuters) - At least six brokerages cut their
price target on Citrix Systems (CTXS.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a day after the
software maker reported a 9 percent drop in quarterly profit
hit higher operating expenses, pointing at a weak application
networking business and the U.S. economic downturn.

UBS expects orders for Citrix to come in mostly at the end
of the year and does not see any near-term catalyst. A slowdown
in the company's Xen business could lead to lower 2009
estimates, UBS said.

Citrix, which develops virtualization software that allows
a single computer to act like many "virtual" machines, had
bought privately held Xensource Inc last year and had said it
expects the business to contribute $50 million to 2008 revenue.

Friedman Billings Ramsey said that though the company's
application networking unit had run into trouble waters in the
first quarter, a strong international business and a healthy
product cycle should buoy Citrix in the near-term.

Citrix shares were trading up more than 2 percent at $33.15
in afternoon trade on Nasdaq.

The brokerages maintained their rating on the company but
made the following price-target changes: BROKERAGE
RATING PRICE TARGET

CURRENT PRIOR UBS

Neutral $35 $37 Citigroup
Hold $37 $43 Stifel Buy
$40 $43 Oppenheimer Outperform $41
$46 Raymond James Outperform $41 $47 Friedman

Outperform $43 $50
(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish
Narayanan)